What has Become
by Kyo Tetsuei
Summary: There are consequences for every action. What happens at the Valley of the End is no exception. Reflections, repercussions, and resignation.


If you are thinking that things happened differently in the original story, that's because it did. Kishimoto Masashi did the story, not me. I'm only taking some ideas and going with them. It still doesn't belong to me, however.

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**What Has Become  
Chapter 1  
**

A panting Shizune burst into the hallway, interrupting Tsunade's conversation with Shikamaru. "Tsunade-sama, Hyuuga Neji – condition stabilized. Inuzuka Kiba is also stable, and his clan is tending to his dog. Gaara has returned with Rock Lee, and Lee-kun just needs a little patching up, but he is fine."

"That's good to hear; I've just finished on the Akimichi boy. Their clan has some great documentation, and the treatment was fairly straightforward."

Her student pondered this for a moment. "What news of Naruto-kun do you have, Tsunade-sama?"

"I sent Kakashi to check up on him, he should be back anytime–" she stopped abruptly as a medic-nin dressed in a tattered medic uniform stumbled into the corridor.

"Hokage-sama! You have to come quickly! There is a situation!"

"What happened to you? Why are you injured like that?" The medic-nin fidgeted for a second, before drawing the resolve to answer.

"Hatake Kakashi and Uzumaki Naruto have returned. You need to treat them both immediately. We've tried all we can, but at our level, we can't even get close."

Her face betrayed no emotion, but her eyes narrowed slightly. Getting up from the bench, she began walking towards the medic-nin, nodding for Shizune to follow. "Well, let's go then. Where are they?"

"Ah… Kakashi is in the ICU, but the Uzumaki boy is not in the hospital, Hokage-sama."

"And why is that?"

"The same reason why we can't even get close, and why it took all of our power just to get Kakashi out. The child is just outside the city walls, in training field four. We've placed a few guards on site, to keep anyone from getting too close. You have to see it to understand, ma'am. We've never seen anything like it."

"Alright. Shizune, let's go." Motioning to the medic-nin, she ordered him to find someone to tend to Kakashi, and then get some treatment himself. The two women, upon leaving the hospital, immediately took to the rooftops and sped towards the towering walls surrounding the village. As they got to the fourth training grounds, they were shocked by what they saw.

In the middle of a blasted field, waves of dark crimson chakra pulsed outward from an epicenter of what was presumably Uzumaki Naruto. Not really sure what was going on, a chuunin guard quickly informed them that the evil chakra surrounding Naruto would affect anyone that got near. Apparently, the medic nin suffered some inner coil damage, but was able to repair some of it before he went to summon Tsunade. Kakashi also suffered some damage but to a lesser extent, leading the gathered ninja to believe that seasoned shinobi would be able to withstand the effects more effectively.

Steeling her resolve, Tsunade stepped into the fray. She could feel the buffeting waves of foreign chakra in her very bones, threatening to tear her asunder. Gathering more strength, she finally reached Naruto, she gasped in horror. The seal on his stomach was burning brightly red, visible even through the incredibly bloodied makeshift bandage surrounding Naruto's stomach. The innermost portion seemed to have sunk in, a hole the size of a fist. Pushing down her fear of blood, she quickly removed the bandage to get a better look at the wound – it was a gaping hole that went the entire way through. Tsunade knew that normally, any kind of damage to Naruto would have been quickly repaired by the rapid healing provided by the Kyuubi's power. This time, however, the sight shocked her. The wound looked similar to one that a normal person would have: bloody, broken, and quite fatal.

As she made a move to examine the damage to the seal, the waves of malevolent chakra flared violently, and then vanished. There was no gradual reduction, such as that signaling the end of a spring rainstorm. Not even the slightest trickle of energy remained. In its wake, a slight wind blew through the field. The burning chakra seemed to also have seared the blood around the wound, leaving flakes of blood to be carried off in the breeze, a red trail flowing upward and outward from Naruto's body. After the dried blood cleared away, the sannin was shocked by what she saw. The body was now devoid of blood. The seal, previously invisible unless chakra was applied, was shown in bright orange for all to see. However, the seal was not the one that she had previously known. Something had altered it somehow, twisted the runes and markings. The only portion that remained the same was the outermost rim – the rest, well, would have been there, if it weren't for the gaping hole in his gut. Checking for any possible signs of life, she found no indication of it. Naruto had died in transport. Silent in shock, Tsunade cradled the boy's head to her chest, leaving the spectators at a loss of what to do; they respectably kept silent, still on guard to prevent anyone from interrupting their Hokage in mourning.

* * *

_The battle, nearly drawn to a close, had already left quite a mark on the place called the Valley of the End. The two shinobi there, out of breath and looking extremely haggard, stood in ready positions. Both seemed almost ready to fall over, but still seemingly able to summon enough strength to send fierce glares which the other was all to eager to return. One fought for revenge, the other fighting for two things – acknowledgement, and a promise of a lifetime. One of the fighters stood on the side of a cliff, body warped and transformed by evil, binding chakra. The other, perched on the surface of the water below, also maintained a shape not like that of a human, the form created by a malevolently pulsing, red chakra. It was only a few moments after their latest exchange of blows, but they were already gathering the energy for the next one. _

_The grin on one of the fighter's face punctuated his statement. "Don't you think it's about time we settled this? One last move, yours against mine. I'll finally be able to show you once and for all that you will never be able to reach my level, not even in your wildest dreams." The grin on Sasuke's face grew even greater as he added, "I'll kill you with this next attack. I'll finally have the Mangekyou, and you'll finally be dead, never to bother me again. Don't worry about your worthless promise to Sakura and the village. After I get my revenge, I'll return to the village, where I'll destroy everyone and everything there. There will be no more Konoha, no more Hokage."  
_

_Naruto's scowl became even more fierce. "Sasuke, you bastard! What about all the times we spent together? What about Team 7, Kakashi-sensei, and Sakura-chan? We all want you to come back! Why do you have to follow Orochimaru?"_

_"You're such the idiot. With Orochimaru, I can get all the power I need. I don't need anything from that trash pile of a village. I don't need Kakashi; I've already got the one thing from him that I can't get from anywhere else. Sakura? She was more of a bother than you were. I'll take pleasure in killing her - it'll save everyone else the trouble of having to protect her. Enough with the talk already, Naruto! This is where it all ends!"_

_Naruto's scowl turned into a confident grin. He had confidence in his skills and conviction. He had a promise to keep, one sworn by his nindo. There would be no losing here. He would bring Sasuke, with two broken legs, back to Sakura-chan just as he said he would. Control enhanced by the demonic power coursing through his body, a crimson swirl of chakra began to form in his right hand. "What are you waiting for, then? Put your forehead protector on. If we do this, we do it as equals, as ninjas of Konohagakure!"_

_"Equals? You won't even touch me. But if it is so important to you, I'll fulfill this, a dying man's last request." Tying his forehead protector firmly to his head, Sasuke then made his move. A few rapid hand signals later, he had gathered enough chakra in his hand so that it took on a physical form. The telltale chirping and crackling signaled Kakashi's signature move, the Chidori. From the side of the cliff, rocks shattered from the force of Sasuke's jump, propelling him off towards Naruto. Water shifted violently as the blonde also pushed off, Rasengan in hand._

_'Too easy… too easy!' thought Sasuke as they closed in on each other. With the third node of his Sharingan activated, even Naruto's incredibly enhanced speed seemed to crawl. Seeing the path of his strike, Sasuke twisted ever so slightly in mid-flight to avoid the Rasengan, adjusting his own aim accordingly. After the twist, striking at Naruto's heart was now impossible, but another target became wide open, and this attack would be just as effective there. Bringing his arm down, Sasuke grinned as the Rasengan cut a clean line through the length of his forehead protector, hitting nothing else. _

_Seeing his opening, Sasuke plowed his hand straight through Naruto's stomach. Immediately, something happened that the Uchiha would never have expected. The aura around Naruto vanished, the feral transformation returning to normal. Just as suddenly, his world exploded in pain. Sasuke's entire body felt like it was being torn to shreds. His chest convulsed as chakra from the outside of his body stimulated the chakra within, much like fire bringing water in a pot to boil. And akin to boiling water, wounds burst out all over his body, as if pointing out where chakra seemed to gather within a human's body._

_One such place was Sasuke's eyes – the highly excited chakra normally employed by the Sharingan was thumping out of control within his head, excess burning off right in front of his eyes, searing his vision. In panic, Sasuke frantically kicked off from Naruto, clutching his head as he crashed down onto the ground. Body convulsing in pain, he barely noticed Naruto's motionless body sinking under the water before everything turned black…_

* * *

As Tsunade sat in her office, looking at the scroll placed in front of her, the Hokage sighed to herself. Instead of the commonly-used string tying a mission report closed, a Konoha forehead protector had been wrapped around the scroll. Usually symbolic of a death during a mission, this one carried a different meaning altogether. Down the length of the metal plate with the symbol of the Leaf was a large scratch. Missing-nin usually marked their betrayal of their village with a kunai, and the subsequent cut usually wasn't clean, with some small metal shreds still left on the damaged hitai-ate. This, however, was a clean cut, almost as if the steel plate had been forged this way. 

Hoping to gather some information about the fight, Tsunade set the protector aside and opened Kakashi's report. What she found there wasn't very reassuring. By the time he had arrived, the battle was over. All he initially saw at the Valley of the End was a war-torn battlefield, one created only by the fight between two extremely powerful combatants. There was no sign of Sasuke – the boy-turned-traitor had either left the battlefield of his own accord, or had some help. Kakashi's cursory examination of the area as he searched for Naruto led him to believe that someone had come to take Sasuke away; most likely someone from the Sound, perhaps Kabuto or even Orochimaru himself. As for Naruto, he had been found in the lake, with the wild chakra boiling the water around him. Kakashi had brought Naruto back, at the risk of his own safety. The Hokage herself had experienced the buffeting forces, and knew what he had gone through.

With nothing much more in the report than what she had expected, she set it aside. Now would come the hard part – Sakura was still asking where the rest of her team was, and Iruka seemed to be concerned as well.

* * *

"What I have just told you is to be held in the strictest confidence. Not a word of this is to be uttered outside of this room, is that clear?" 

"Yes, Hokage-sama."

"Understood."

"Very well, you two may leave. Take a day or two off, but don't do anything stupid." As Sakura and Iruka exited the office, Kakashi gave a slight nod to the Hokage, and left through the open window. After a few moments, Tsunade started rubbing her temples with the palms of her hands. "What is it Shizune, you look like you want to say something. Go ahead and say it already."  
Her assistant fidgeted for a moment, before deciding to voice her thoughts. "Are you sure it's okay that we didn't tell the two about what really happened? And with Sakura not knowing the real truth? What'll they do if they find out?"

"Even if they did know the truth, what good does it do them? Do you, knowing that Naruto suffered in agony until he finally gave out, wish to place the burden of that knowledge on other people? There are those that would rejoice from that knowledge, and the people that care would only be further burdened, like we are. Kakashi won't tell anyone, and this way, all that Sakura and Iruka are aware of is that Sasuke killed him in their fight. Right now, Sakura doesn't need to know about Naruto's special condition, although I might tell her in the future if I think she's ready. Iruka will figure out that if we aren't fighting the Kyuubi by now, that it should be taken care of, which it is. Let them be, Shizune – there are things better left unsaid."

**End Prologue**

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Notes - The first incarnation of this story had a huge rant in this section. You're not going to see that here. However, I will say this: If you're going to review, then do so seriously. Don't think that a "update soon" will be even considered. If I even see a mindlessly written review (one that has a complete disregard for English spelling and grammar), the only thing I'm going to do is laugh at it. Seriously written reviews will be accorded the utmost respect. Anything else and you're on your own. I'd rather have no reviews than a hundred badly written ones. 


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